The Official Save The Bodybuilding.com Forums

[bisonp]

While the spam is incredibly annoying, it's only done if people stop contributing, thereby killing it.

I have noticed those spam posts are getting a lot of views. That's evidently bots making it appear like people are actually looking at those posts, because there aren't enough members left here to do that. Nothing is going to change until somebody at BB.com takes control, which doesn't look like it's going to happen.

[Michiganian]

Nothing is going to change until somebody at BB.com takes control, which doesn't look like it's going to happen.

I can't imagine what ownership is thinking. Obviously somebody is watching the forums, because they get repaired when the database falls over. And, last time it happened, somebody went through and deleted all the spam threads.

But they're ignoring people volunteering to moderate the forums--allowing them to be overrun with really appalling spam, both in volume and content, and misc is nothing short of a complete and utter embarrassment--populated mostly by whiny incels and juveniles. (I don't understand whey they allow that section to even exist.)

None of this makes any sense to me in the least.

[RGrizzzz]

I can't imagine what ownership is thinking. Obviously somebody is watching the forums, because they get repaired when the database falls over. And, last time it happened, somebody went through and deleted all the spam threads.

But they're ignoring people volunteering to moderate the forums--allowing them to be overrun with really appalling spam, both in volume and content, and misc is nothing short of a complete and utter embarrassment--populated mostly by whiny incels and juveniles. (I don't understand whey they allow that section to even exist.)

None of this makes any sense to me in the least.

How are you reaching out to try to get admin rights? Moderator application form @ https://support.bodybuilding.com/hc/...=9743246940820 ?

[Michiganian]

How are you reaching out to try to get admin rights? Moderator application form @ https://support.bodybuilding.com/hc/...=9743246940820 ?

I know about that. I don't qualify due to insufficient time in the forums. So I reached out via email and a contact form. Received no response to either. Another member did submit the form. He, likewise, heard nothing back.

[FrancisSoyer]

I use dumb bells.

[Duplicitous]

This place seems to be a lost cause at this point.

[Greybird2]

This place seems to be a lost cause at this point.

Yes.

[ampire]

My suggestion would be to make a reddit "equipment forum" or "workout equipment" and/or a discord. reddit/r/homegym is okay for some stuff but seems mostly motivated by trendy influencer materialism. I've never really wanted to interact there. Some of the charm of this place is the discussion of acquisition of niche items, home made equipment, and former commercial pieces. Little of that exists on homegym, which mostly resembles a rogue/rep marketing flier, with lots of pictures of similar looking garages filled with thousands of dollars in barely used black powdercoated steel.

[thedickus]

My suggestion would be to make a reddit "equipment forum" or "workout equipment" and/or a discord. reddit/r/homegym is okay for some stuff but seems mostly motivated by trendy influencer materialism. I've never really wanted to interact there. Some of the charm of this place is the discussion of acquisition of niche items, home made equipment, and former commercial pieces. Little of that exists on homegym, which mostly resembles a rogue/rep marketing flier, with lots of pictures of similar looking garages filled with thousands of dollars in barely used black powdercoated steel.

This place used to be a goldmine of quality information. Just about any piece of equipment someone had a question about most likely someone on this site either owns, has owned it, or at the very least used it. I'm sure this site has saved the average new home gym person hundreds to thousands of dollars if advice was followed.
On the flip side there hasn't been a Bowflex question or a good smith machine argument on here for probably a year or more.

[bisonp]

This place used to be a goldmine of quality information. Just about any piece of equipment someone had a question about most likely someone on this site either owns, has owned it, or at the very least used it. I'm sure this site has saved the average new home gym person hundreds to thousands of dollars if advice was followed.
On the flip side there hasn't been a Bowflex question or a good smith machine argument on here for probably a year or more.

Just for you, I commented on the Bowflex thread.

I don't think the Bowflex cable machines are as popular as they used to be. I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial for them.

[thedickus]

Just for you, I commented on the Bowflex thread.

I don't think the Bowflex cable machines are as popular as they used to be. I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial for them.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to bisonp again.

Holy crap! I forgot there even was a Bowflex thread, it's right at the top of the stickies. It used to be about a weekly thing to talk someone off the Bowflex ledge. But you're right, I can't remember the last Bowflex weight machine I saw a commercial for.

Now someone just needs to say how smith machines are bad for you. My week will be complete.

[Michiganian]

Now someone just needs to say how smith machines are bad for you. My week will be complete.

Just for you: I just gave somebody an opening: Smith Machines: Yea Or Nay?

[thedickus]

Just for you: I just gave somebody an opening: Smith Machines: Yea Or Nay?

Two years ago you'd have had no idea of the carnage you've just released. These days it will be on page 3 behind two page of foreign escorts spam posts by tomorrow.

[67Vert]

Holy ****. The chinese spam bot is posting every 2 minutes.

[1651Naismith]

Giving it another bump…

[Michiganian]

Dunno how far I'll actually take this, but I'm gonna start looking for a decent domain name to register.

This is just utterly ridiculous

[CW47]

Dunno how far I'll actually take this, but I'm gonna start looking for a decent domain name to register.

This is just utterly ridiculous

I own and run an unrelated forum and have been a moderator & admin elsewhere prior to that. I'm happy to help out in whatever capacity I can. I know next to nothing on the technical side and have relied upon google for most of that stuff, but I'm very familiar with multiple types of forum software and could certainly help out with getting forum structure, member settings, and various other aspects setup. I had briefly entertained the idea of setting one up myself but would much rather support someone else in getting something started up. Let me know if there's anything I can do to assist.

[thedickus]

Two years ago you'd have had no idea of the carnage you've just released. These days it will be on page 3 behind two page of foreign escorts spam posts by tomorrow.

Damn, I called that but wasn't expecting six pages of Chinese spam.
Two years ago a Smith machine thread would've left several people not smart enough to use a machine that goes straight up and down completely butt hurt.

[radrd]

Bump

[radrd]

Bump

[CW47]

Just noticed that someone (presumably a forum administrator) logged into Ironwill's account to edit the stickied thread on Spam...

Here's the thread now: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...31&pagenumber=

And what it used to say: https://web.archive.org/web/20211202...hp?t=175077031

Why?... Should have just unstickied the thread, lmao.

[Michiganian]

How are you reaching out to try to get admin rights? Moderator application form @ https://support.bodybuilding.com/hc/...=9743246940820 ?

So I went ahead and submitted a Moderator Application Form, anyway. Nothing to lose, really.

[xdoomhammerx]

So I went ahead and submitted a Moderator Application Form, anyway. Nothing to lose, really.

Anybody who's willing to step up to shut this cr*pshow down has my vote! Let us know how it goes.

[ampire]

Did they all just simultaneously quit?

Moderators of this Forum

ironwill2008 LUKEDEICHER BodySpaceAdmin bbmod2 TheDukeUSMC memcop Dirk__Diggler pUniCepts VoxExMachina nics1246 Synapsin MissChill Dominik bbmod1 ctgblue SuffolkPunch Gxp23 WillNotBreak dj924s devilbones cgc Kartimob Ratheeshmob Pavithmob Ratheeshmobius narenmob

[CW47]

Did they all just simultaneously quit?

Granted, I only frequent a few of the sub-forums, but the only one I've seen active on the forums within the last year is SuffolkPunch, and haven't seen him post anything in a while now either. I can say without doubt that the moderation team managed/monitored by anyone. ironwill2008 passed away several years ago and is still listed as an active mod. My guess would be that mod applications are going to a black hole and will never be followed up on. It's readily apparent that those that have the power to facilitate these forums being cleaned up don't have any interest in doing so because it's really not that difficult if they DID want to do something about it. Sad.

[bisonp]

Yeah I thought I had seen him more recently.

Here's one of his last posts from a month ago: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1672453643

Not sure who may see this; maybe no one since the hundreds of posters with whom I once shared this journal along with my previous two maxxed-out journals has long-since been reduced to only a few current posters on this now-sad website. Everything here is pretty much irrelevant at this point, but I still felt compelled to close out my involvement here while I still had the chance.

First of all, thanks to the many who commented here concerning my contribution to this site over the years; your sentiments have not fallen on a deaf ear, nor will I ever forget any of you. My only goal for posting---and then moderating---on this site was always to try to help others find what I've found in bodybuilding and its associated lifestyle. Additionally, my goal was to help maintain a high level of integrity---overseeing of posting of correct and appropriate information and guidance---in the various training/nutrition-related forums.

I left this site 3 years ago after the ability to effectively moderate was taken away in an ill-conceived effort to maintain forum "traffic." As I predicted then, this resulted in entire subforums becoming blanketed by page after page of spam and off-topic nonsense posts, with no tools left to stop any of it. Most knowledgeable posters then left the forums in frustration rather than attempting to post amidst the BS. Additionally, pleas from both moderators as well as regular posters to fix broken forum functions have been ignored for years, compounding the problems. From time to time, I've logged in to see if there had been any positive change but always left again in disappointment.



BBdotcom was, at one time, the top source of training and nutrition information to be found anywhere on the internet. Out of over 300,000 forum-based websites, prior to around 2018, its traffic numbers ranked around 20th; last time I bothered to check, it was at about 8700th. I seriously wonder why site ownership hasn't long-since pulled the plug but suspect that might not be too far off, especially considering the two recent forum collapses.



To any of you still here who shared with me my three journals, thanks for contributing; we had a good run back then. I wish you all the best; perhaps we'll meet again at some place down the road.

[CW47]

Yeah I thought I had seen him more recently.

Here's one of his last posts from a month ago: https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...post1672453643

Well, that is good news then! Apparently I misinterpreted something I read a while back. Apologies for the mistake.

[urbanlifter]

China appears to be dedicated to ruining this forum, spam on another level today!

[radrd]

China appears to be dedicated to ruining this forum, spam on another level today!

Yes, and it seems to be just the equipment forum. The others still have spam but it's FAR less. I don't know how spam bots work but "equipment" must be a trigger word suggesting there is money to be made. Or something. Who knows.

I posted a thread in misc to get the bot banned. It took a couple days but eventually someone noticed. Not sure if my thread helped because a mod never replied, so maybe coincidence. But the spam bot came back with a new user name. I'm going to keep checking in, but I'm not optimistic that this forum is going anywhere but away. BB.com doesn't seem interested in supporting it.

[MaineBarnLift]

I found one of the equipment thread moderators has some recent posts in another of the forums and messaged them to see if they can approve some of the pending moderator requests. I left a read request on there so I'll know if they say least look at the private message. Assuming mods can approve other mods?

Sorting by views gets rid of the spam from the first couple pages. It's a workaround. Still sucks, but at least better than these forums being unusable. I've been tempted to go through each of the useful threads and just bump them so they'll be preserved and not fall out of the thread listing. At least then the view sorting will bring them from the flood of spam that d-bag is bringing.